Collages by Christopher Luna for Women Warriors at Angst Gallery March 1-23, 2019

"Don't wait." Artist Trading Card by Christopher Luna

Women Warriors Artist Trading Card: Emily Dickinson

Women Warriors ATC: For Aretha (poem by Christopher Luna)

Emergent Goddesses of the Frozen Wood by Christopher Luna

Women Warriors ATC: Jane Bowles by Christopher Luna

Women Warriors ATC: Sylvia Plath by Christopher Luna

Women Warriors ATC: "to speak. YES YES" by Christopher Luna

Women Warriors ATC: Venus by Christopher Luna

Women Warriors at Angst Gallery March 1-23, 2019

Angst Gallery recognizes that women have shaped society in ways for which they are not often enough acknowledged. For the month of March, Angst Gallery will celebrate Women Warriors in all their various incarnations.

Women Warriors at Angst Gallery March 1-23, 2019

Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660

Hours: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 12-4.
Accessible via Niche Wine Bar (1013 Main Street) after 4pm Tuesday through Saturday.

Women warriors come in all shapes, sizes, and ages: Malala, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Florence Nightingale, Great Aunt Beatrice. So many women inspire us behind the scenes or in the public eye. What makes a woman warrior? Not all heroism involves violence. What drives such acts of heroism? What qualities or circumstances drive women to push back, protect, or change the world? Who are the women in your life who inspire you?

In 2018 the New York Times recognized that they had overlooked many important women in their obituary section and have been working to go back into the archives and feature those who were overlooked.

In Sweden, ancient Viking remains were discovered to actually belong to a female and not a male 100 years after they were found. Sometimes it is our tendency to incorrectly assume that remains from archaeological conform to stereotypical gender roles. What other assumptions have we made in history? What assumptions will be made when looking back 100 years from now?

“Wonder Woman lived: Viking warrior skeleton identified as female, 128 years after its discovery” By Amy Ellis Nutt September 14, 2017

For more information about National Women’s History Month, visit the National Women’s History Alliance website. 

International Women’s Day is March 8, 2019.

Since its opening in 2008, Angst Gallery has hosted solo and group shows featuring more than 300 local and national artists and cultural events including art shows, musical performances, book launch parties, art talks, classes, workshops, and the monthly Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic. More than just a place to show art, Angst Gallery is also a safe space for community discussion, where all people are respected for who they are. We donate the use of the space to organizations that work for human rights and progressive social change.

NOT MY PRESIDENT Reading at Angst Gallery April 14, 2018

NOT MY PRESIDENT reading

 Thoughtcrime Press and Angst Gallery present

Poems and Stories from NOT MY PRESIDENT: The Anthology of Dissent

Hosted by Thoughtcrime Publisher/Editor Josh Gaines and Christopher Luna

6pm

Saturday, April 14

Angst Gallery

1015 Main Street

Vancouver, WA 98660

Featuring local writers from the anthology: Gail Alexander, Sossity Chiricuzio, Christopher Luna, Elizabeth Stansberry, Adam Strong, and Nathan Tompkins.

Thoughtcrime Press gathers voices from around the world in NOT MY PRESIDENT, including National Book Award winners, visual artists, New York Times Best Sellers, poets laureate, singer-songwriters, high school students, and children of illegal immigrants, all united in their opposition to the policies of Donald Trump. A copy of this book has been sent to the Tweeter-In-Chief and to every member of the United States Congress.

Order your copy of NOT MY PRESIDENT here. 

Thoughtcrime Press founder and Captain Josh Gaines ditched a promising military career to write books, run a profitless press, and build blanket forts with his daughter. He earned a writing MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His fiction has been published in Two Cities Review, Nebula Rift, and in London's, Dark Mountain. His poetry appears in numerous anthologies and journals, most recently in Blue Monday Review, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, and Yellow Chair Review, and in his own books of poetry and flash fiction: Cigarette Sonatas, and little bones. Josh is the editor of Not My President, the Anthology of Dissent and was the 2016 and 2017 Fiction Writer in Residence at Art Farm Nebraska.

Reader Bios:

Gail Alexander writes on a river in Vancouver, WA. NOT MY PRESIDENT is her first publication.

Sossity Chiricuzio is a queer femme outlaw poet, a working class crip storyteller. What her friends parents often referred to as a bad influence, and possibly still do. A 2015 Lambda Fellow, she writes as activism, connection, and survival, and is found in publications like Adrienne, NANO fiction, Porkbelly Press, and Lunch Ticket, and in anthologies like Not My President, The Remedy, and Glitter and Grit.

Christopher Luna served as Clark County, WA’s first Poet Laureate from 2013-2017. He has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and is the co-founder, with his wife, Toni Partington, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He has hosted the popular Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in Vancouver, WA since 2004. Luna’s books include Brutal Glints of Moonlight, GHOST TOWN, USA and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978.

Elizabeth Stansberry has been writing poetry for 3 decades. She graduated from Idaho State University with a bachelor's degree in English.  Miss Stansberry has participated in Portland open mics and poetry slams since 2014. Miss Stansberry has also been published in  Skyline Review, Oregon Artswatch, The Eclectic Muse and a Write Around Portland Anthology, Mile Marker.  She is a secretary at Prosper Portland and does on call security at the Portland Art Museum.

Adam Strong is a Digital Arts teacher and the author of the novel Bella Vista. His work has appeared in Nailed Magazine, The Gravity of the Thing, and in the anthology City of Weird. He curates the reading series Songbook PDX. He writes and loves in Portland, OR.

Nathan Tompkins is a writer living just outside of Portland, though his heart will always be back in North Idaho. His work has appeared in many publications including WindFall: A Journal of Poetry of Place, Drunk Monkeys, and Anti-Heroin Chic. He's the author of five chapbooks, the latest being Uncomfortable Adventures.

Bid on a poetry trading card by Niche Poet Laureate Christopher Luna to benefit VSAA's jazz program

Update, February 22: Congratulations to Jennifer Pratt-Walter ($20) and Peggy Bird ($25) for their winning bids on the poetry trading cards I created to benefit VSAA's jazz program. I would also like to thank Jamie Lutz and Amy Horstman for participating in the  auction. Keep supporting the arts.   

Christopher Luna working on poetry trading cards at Niche 

Wednesday, February 15, 2012 Photograph by Daniel Wickwire

I had a great time at Niche Wine and Art bar Wednesday night, listening to some very talented young jazz musicians from the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics. Every Wednesday this month, Niche will present jazz performances to benefit the school's musicians. Here is the announcement from Niche's Facebook page: "During the entire month of February a selection of wines and sodas will be supporting the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics jazz program. Profits from these items will be donated to the VSAA jazz students for travel. Enjoy a great restaurant while supporting great jazz! Every Wednesday for the rest of the month the actual jazz performers from VSAA will be here (with special guests)!!"

I occasionally create poetry trading cards and postcards while hanging out at the bar. I created three new cards that night, and while one is spoken for, I am offering up two of the cards to the highest bidder. I will donate all of the money raised to the VSAA Jazz program. Please contact me on Facebook or via email (christopherjluna@gmail.com) no later than 5pm Wednesday, February 22 if you would like to bid.

  RE-EMERGENCE

poetry trading card by Christopher Luna

February 15, 2012

 EQUINOX

poetry trading card by Christopher Luna

February 15, 2012

Opening bid: $5 Jamie Lutz

Finally, here is the third card I created that evening, which is not available for auction because I gave it to young bandleader and bassist Stu Jackson: 

a dirty word, but it comes out clean (Jack Kerouac)

for Stu Jackson

poetry trading card by Christopher Luna

February 15, 2012

I will be posting more examples of these trading cards soon.

Thank you for supporting art, poetry, and jazz in the 'Couve.

Christopher Luna

Niche/Angst Poet Laureate

The Work poetry workshop returns today

Today at noon we will gather at Niche Wine and Art Bar (1013 Main Street) for The Work a monthly poetry workshop designed to help you generate some new work. After a brief hiatus for the holidays, we're ready to get back to it. We'll take our inspiration from poems by Gwendolyn Brooks, Ishmael Reed, Jack Kerouac, Langston Hughes, Suheir Hammad, Marge Piercy, Victor Hernandez-Cruz, Richard Krech, and Dan Raphael.

Well, while I'm here I'll

do the work –

and what's the work?

to ease the pain of living.

Everything else, drunken

dumbshow

Allen Ginsberg, “Memory Gardens”

Why do we write? What is the poet’s place in the world? What can we do to increase our ability to inspire and provoke with our words? How do we integrate our compulsion to create into our everyday lives? These and other questions and will be addressed in The Work, facilitated by Christopher Luna. At noon every second Saturday we will gather at Niche Wine and Art to listen to, discuss, and write poetry. The cost is $20 per session or $45 for three months. For more information contact Christopher Luna at christopherjluna@gmail.com or 360-910-1066.

The Work is sponsored by Leah Jackson, Angst Gallery, and Printed Matter Vancouver.

The Beauty: A poem to congratulate Leah Jackson on the one-year anniversary of Niche Wine and Art Bar

Christopher Luna and Leah Jackson  in front of Angst Gallery

Congratulations to Leah Jackson for creating the coolest spot in the 'Couve. Late last year, Leah honored me by naming me her poet laureate. I didn't know an individual could do that, but Leah is not the kind of person to ask permission. She is the kind of person who makes things happen. Niche is a classy, fun, beautiful place to be, the food is amazing, and the wine is exquisite. I am proud to play a small role in the beauty Leah is nurturing there. Leah has supported me in many different ways since we first met. She has done more than anyone I know to make Vancouver, WA a place where poetry, art, and music thrive.

Here is the poem I wrote in her honor and presented at Niche's one-year anniversary on Saturday:

The Beauty

some hide it

while others wave it

in your face

unsolicited

some plant a seed

others born to tend

still more simply benefit

from the fruit

of their generosity

our hostess

extends her arms

to surround our light

in a canopy

of evergreen

digs in

don’t let go

builds the stage

hangs the art

lays the foundation

while we sleep

if you want to thank her

get in line

may have to make an appointment

she’s too busy making things better

for all of us

a bard needs a bicycle

a poet needs a mic

a painter needs a wall

a songwriter needs a muse

everyone needs a song

sounds like it was written

especially for you

a citizen needs a drink, companionship,

and a splash of beauty now and then

you’re not alone

you’re not invisible

not insignificant

when it begins to feel as if

no one notices

no one knows you’re there

when you begin to feel you’re on your own

remember there’s a perfect niche

down the street

waiting just for you

With love and respect for Leah Jackson

On the first anniversary of Niche Wine and Art Bar

In gratitude for her service to the community

Christopher Luna

Poet Laureate, 2011